At present, it is general practice to place the test tube, or an equivalent vessel containing the specimen, into specific specimen identifiers and then to transfer the specimen identifiers from one appliance to another during the various handling stages of the specimen. Data can then be fed into the memory of the specimen identifier for identification purposes. Typical data would be the personal details or identifier of the specimen owner for identification purposes, the tests performed, or to be performed, on the specimen, etc. There are disadvantages associated with present specimen identifiers. Visibility of the specimen is an important factor, but with present equipment, it is not possible to view the specimen sufficiently clearly since the specimen holder covers the test tube. With present appliances or holders the test tube is mounted by pushing it down from above until the bottom of the test tube touches the base section. Inserting and removing test tubes in this manner is, however, difficult. It is also a problem if the specimen identifier cannot stand up to the operations required by the test programme.